Greece Made by Nature.

Greece Made by Nature

In the making of Greece, Nature played some of her most delightful pranks, and indulged in many of her wildest freaks. Taking a little piece of the European mainland for material, she used the sea in carving zigzags and curves, so as to give it a remarkably long and very quaintly winding outline. At one time she had an idea of cutting the country right through into two pieces ; but she changed her mind at the last minute, and left the nearly finished island in the south in the form of a peninsula, joined to a northern peninsula by a narrow bridge.

Nearly all round the outline she martialled mountains in semicircular array, making the sea look as though it were fringed with large, richly scalloped shells cast ashore by mighty waves, and tilted up side by side at varying angles. And within this borderland of rugged splendour she put giants to work and play. They exploded sub terranean mines, so that the earth quaked and was rent asunder, great masses being hurled high into the air, leaving yawning caverns into which other great masses tumbled helter-skelter. In this way the inland region became divided up into small mountain-girdled plains, each isolated from its neighbours by circle behind circle of humpbacked hills, sheer precipices, and frowning peaks.

There was not sufficient room on the lowlands for a river to grow, but some of the torrents that rushed down the mountain-sides, flung themselves over precipices, and burrowed their way across the hills, at last managed to meet each other on the plains. Here they united to form streams, which hollowed out a winding valley in their determined effort to reach the sea. The fertile plains gave birth to vegetation, which foretold the luxuriant crops they would produce under cultivation. The hills, too, in some regions were decked with woods and clothed with forests, but most of the plains were encircled by stony uplands and rocky heights on which nothing could take root. You will not be surprised to hear that while the giants chose the wild mountains as their habitation, the woods and forests were inhabited by nymphs and fairies.

But Nature was not content with the ups and downs and the twistings and turnings of a mainland Greece. Her forces were called into action to make patchwork of the surrounding sea. When they had finished their work, the ocean was studded with islands. On the western coast, in the waters known as the Ionian Sea, the islands were scattered, so that they were some little distance apart ; but in the ^Egean Sea, on the eastern side, they formed a continuous group, or archipelago. And to lend still greater variety to the pattern of Greece, circles of mountains were thrown up in the open waters, so that in many places the sea looked like a succession of mountain-girdled lakes.

Since the days when Greece was first fashioned, earth quakes have wrought havoc among the plains; have altered, and are constantly altering, the shape of moun tains and the size of islands ; have added a detail here, and completely wiped out another there. Man, too, has cut down many of the old woods and destroyed some of the ancient forests. But, generally speaking, Greece in shape and form is now as it ever was a magnificent piece of natural patchwork. You have only to see the country to be quite sure that giants still stalk the in accessible heights and rove in the shadowland of the mighty abysses, while fairies play on the sunny slopes and weave spells in the woodland dells.

Besides the charm of design, Greece has the fascina tion of colour. The principal note in the colour-scheme is blue. On a fine day and fine days are a rule, with few exceptions the sky is royal blue, the sea is sapphire blue, and the land has some tinge of blue in nearly all its lights and shades. The mountain-tops flash silver ; on their bare, rugged sides bright silver-grey patches shine among blue-grey, grey-blue, and indigo shadows. The luxuriant little plains below have a carpet of a variegated green groundwork, toned to a soft hue by the bluish-green tint of numerous olive-groves, and the chief colour of the decorative pattern of crops is the rich purple of the vineyards when the harvest is ripe.

Greece has yet another means of working her spell of enchantment. The air is so remarkably clear that you can see for miles around, and in the wonderful views you get from the plains up and around the mountains, and from the hill-tops down to the plains below, even far distant details are plainly visible. That summit away on your horizon is not capped with a hazy mass that might be trees or possibly houses ; it is encircled by walls and crowned with temples. Obviously you are looking far across at an acropolis, the citadel of an old Greek town. But as the quality of the air enables you to see so much at one time, there is all the more reason why you should be prepared for a moment when you will suddenly be plunged into a darkness in which you can not see an inch before your nose. There is no twilight in this country, and even the highways without the towns have no lamps ; so if you happen to be wending your way from village to village after sunset you will have to put one foot before the other very warily. Until the night-lights are lit in the sky, you will not be able to see whether the next step is going to help you forward on your stony path or carry you over a precipice. Presently I will tell you about an adventure I had on a night when there was no moon, and when not even a star came out to guide me up the steep ascent to my journey's end.

Among all the blessings with which Nature has endowed Greece, her wealth of sunshine is a very precious gift. On the lower slopes of the mountains and on the plains the summer is very long and very hot. In many parts hardly any rain falls between March and Sep tember sometimes not even a drop. Most of the streams dryup and the grass withers; even the sun-loving crops run the risk of being spoiled, for although they are not greedy for moisture, there are times when they want a little more than the very few drops they get. On the other hand, when winter sets in, Jack Frost hardly ever does any damage. Snow occasionally falls, but the short season between one summer and the next is usually mild, and warm rain comes to water the land.

Up in the mountains there is rain even in the summer, but most of the peasants are away down in the sunshine then, working in the vineyards ; and even though they must be prepared for snow when they go back to their homes, they will not have long to look forward to before sunshine-time comes again. And no one lives on the very high mountains, where it is bitingly cold, and where the snow sometimes lies till the middle of June.

---